Vampire Beat Sheet
Beat Sheets are ways to gain extra beats (experience) to spend on your character, by delving further into the character's nuances and by giving storytelling staff more handles to interact with your character. Whenever a question asks you about someone from your past, you have the option of describing the relevant details and the interaction, but leaving them unnamed. This invites staff to match up the shadows in your past with the shadows in other PCs', giving another dimension of interaction. This Beat Sheet is for Vampires only. Non-Vampire characters may get up to five Beats from this sheet if there are questions that reasonably apply to them. If you are too old to remember your firsts, or feel that those firsts happened too long ago to be relevant, think of your Requiem as a cycle of highs and lows and answer the questions for the most recent cycle. Vampire Beat Sheet (Forty Beats) 'Meet Your Maker '(Three Beats) At some point, the veil was pulled back and you saw the World of Darkness for what it was. For many, this happened at their Embrace. Tell that story, and try to answer the following questions in the process: How did you respond when you saw the truth? Did you lie to yourself, and if so, what lie did you tell? If you didn't deny what was happening, how did you respond? Did you lash out to try to save yourself? Did you embrace this new world with open arms? (One Beat) Who was your maker? This might be your sire, or it might not be - it's the Kindred you can point to and say, "This is the first vampire I really identify as my Kindred". Going forward, you compared every other Kindred (yourself included) against the model this Kindred created in your head, for good or ill. Who was this person? What were they like? How did you feel about them at the time? Are you still in contact? How do you feel about them now? (One Beat) Who was your sire? The Embrace is rarely undertaken lightly - it comes at an unavoidable cost of Humanity. Why did your sire choose you for the Embrace? (One Beats) 'The Beast Within '(Three Beats) Every vampire must come to terms with the powerful, primal monster that inhabits her very skin. What relationship do you have with yours? How did you establish this relationship? (One Beat) When was the moment that you saw the curse for what it was? Was there something important you failed to do because of a Kindred weakness? Did you lose control and do something you'd never wanted to do? How did it feel, betraying yourself, and how did you cope with it? (One Beat) Describe a Kindred who embraces and celebrates the thing you see, deep in yourself, as terrible. Who is it you're afraid to become? Why? (One Beat) 'Past Crimes '(Five Beats) Most vampires have done something - or multiple somethings - that they would once have considered wrong and now don't cause them any grief. When was the first time you broke a rule you'd made to yourself, and how did you justify it? (One Beat) Describe a time you did something wrong, but for what you felt were the right reasons. What part of it do you regret the most? What would you take back if you could? (One Beat) There's a cultural taboo you used to ascribe to back when you were mortal that you don't think twice about violating now. Was it difficult to overcome? Do you still get a thrill out of the 'perversity' of it? How do you feel when you look back on how narrow-minded and parochial you used to be? (One Beat) Someone out there blames you for everything that's wrong in his life. You probably don't even know he exists, even though he's probably right. Who is this person? What did he used to have before you ruined his life? What was it you did that brought his world crashing down? (One Beat) Eventually, even the most careful vampire kills a victim. Tell the story of your first kill. Was it an accident? How did it affect you at the time? Do you remember it now? (One Beat) 'A Slip of the Masquerade '(One Beat) The Masquerade isn't so much a global conspiracy as something that is kept on a night-by-night, victim-by-victim basis. Describe a time you breached the Masquerade. What happened? Was it an accident, and if so, who saw? If you covered it up, how? Did you deliberately reveal the truth to someone, and if so, why? Most importantly, are they still out there? 'Swearing a Covenant '(Six Beats) If you've joined a covenant, why did you pick this one? Were you given a choice? Is there any part of their ethos you've struggled to swallow? If you were tempted by another, what drew you to each and why did you finally choose this one? If you're totally committed, what part of their ethos resonates for you most, and what have you done to be accepted among them? (One Beat) What is your opinion of the Carthian Movement? (One Beat) What is your opinion of the Circle of the Crone? (One Beat) What is your opinion of the Invictus? (One Beat) What is your opinion of the Lancea et Sanctum? (One Beat) What is your opinion of the Ordo Dracul? (One Beat) 'Your lessers '(Three Beats) What is your opinion of ghouls? What place do they serve in vampire society? (One Beat) What is your opinion of humans? How should vampires interact with them? Are you an exception to these rules, and if so, why? (One Beat) Kindred are instinctively hierarchical animals. The predatory aura is all about who is the bigger Beast. Who within vampire society do you consider your lesser? Why? Do you pity them, or revile them? If you don't have a lesser, how do you deal with being the lowest wolf in the pack? (One Beat) 'The Ties That Bind '(Seven Beats) Next to the vampire's eternal resilience, Touchstones tend to seem temporary and fragile. Describe your relationship with your Touchstone. How might it be threatened? How do you protect it? How would you (as the character) like to see it develop? How would you (as a player) like to see it develop? (Two Beats) What is your opinion of the Daeva? (One Beat) What is your opinion of the Gangrel? (One Beat) What is your opinion of the Mekhet? (One Beat) What is your opinion of the Nosferatu? (One Beat) What is your opinion of the Ventrue? (One Beat) 'Manifest Destiny '(Four Beats) What is it you want to achieve with your Requiem? How do you plan on doing that? (One Beat) Getting what you want occasionally comes at a cost. Describe a time you've taken something someone else wanted, and how they responded to that. Do they know it was you? (One Beat) Describe a time you've betrayed or disappointed another Kindred with whom you had a real bond. What happened? Why? How do you feel about it now? (One Beat) One of the ways you know you're no longer the lowest man on the totem pole is when you can help someone else rather than tramping them down. Who have you enabled, helped, or groomed? How? What were you getting out of it? This often isn't something material - love, power, and the feel of being in control are all common. (One Beat) 'Feeding '(Four Beats) Broadly speaking, there are four ways that vampires feed: : Casanovas maneuver their victims into consensual physical contact which is frequently but not always sexual in nature (usually a Presence + Persuasion roll). : Sandmen ''break and enter into houses and feed from sleeping victims (usually a Wits + Larceny roll). : ''Muggers ''ambush victims and take them by force (usually a Strength + Stealth roll). : ''Farmers ''feed on animals (usually a Wits + Survival roll). How do you usually feed? (One Beat) Who are your preferred vessels? Why? (One Beat) Provide an in-character description or sample roleplay of your usual hunting routine. A couple paragraphs is sufficient. (Two Beats) 'The Contaminant Worm '(One Beat) The seed of corruption within a vampire seeps into the area around her, changing it to be subtly more like her. The neighborhood haunted by the Gangrel gets wilder by degrees. Intimacies become primal. Arguments at the bar become physical. The Nosferatu who lives in the mall likes to hang around a children's restaurant. The adults ignore how grotesque the leering faces of the clowns have become. The kids cannot ignore it, and the cheap pizza grows soggy with tears. How do you contaminate your neighborhood? (Must have a Safe Place, Feeding Grounds, or claimed territory.) 'Disciplines Made Flesh '(Two Beats) For each of your Disciplines, describe a related mortal character. For example, a Daeva might represent Vigor with a member of her herd she paralyzed by accident, who she now visits in the hospital sometimes. A Ventrue's Animalism might be embodied by an old man whose dog saved his life from a burglar. These should ideally be Precious Mortals. 'Aggravated Wounds '''(One Beat) Aggravated wounds look completely unnatural. They’re perversions of nature that tax the Masquerade. Each vampire wounds differently. Flesh may become brittle and burn like paper. Tissue may bubble and stink. Blackened veins may streak across the victim’s body. Foamy pustules may taint the area around the injury. Whatever the method, aggravated wounds appear as manifestations of the natural world violently eliminating something that does not belong. What do your wounds look like? Category:Beat Sheets